It hit me today that I haven’t heard the word “chastity” mentioned in the national media lately. And by lately I mean, since the ‘90s! Have you?
Probably the closest I remember is years ago when Tim Tebow was still playing football and Lolo Jones was still running hurdles. Since both of them are vocal about their Christianity—and also about their intent to remain virgins till they’re married—the national media speculated about how they’d be perfect for each other. But man, how could they survive without sex before marriage? Perfectly well, thank you very much.
“When it comes to sexual activity, “condom” is not the only c-word.”
I was a virgin when I got married at 22. So was my wife, at 21. My oldest son and his wife both were too, when they got married at 22. My second son was 23 when he got married. He brought the house down when, at his wedding shower, it was revealed to everyone there that he had only ever kissed one girl, his fiancée.
Oh yeah, and most of our friends and our kids’ friends were also virgins before they were married too. So chastity—staying sexually pure until marriage—is at least still alive today.
But is it well? Let’s see…
In the past 20 years, the number of high school students in North America who confess to still being virgins has RISEN 11%! Now, 57% of high school students are still virgins. And this in spite of non-stop pressure from all forms of media and the public school system that encourages teens to have sex early and often.
True, only 3% of people today are virgins when they get married. But you know what? In the ‘50s, only 11% were. Not a precipitous drop…
So my question remains: Is chastity still in the dictionary?
That 3% number is interesting, you know. What other demographic group also comprises about 3% of our population? Oh yeah, that’s right—the homosexual population. So roughly the same number of people in North America are virgins until marriage as there are gay people. But the national media makes it sound like the whole world is considering turning gay, while at the same time you’d be hard-pressed to find even one virgin left on planet Earth.
Young person, middle-aged person, ANY-aged person—the next time you think you’re all alone in your own personal quest for chastity, think on those stats!
When it comes to sexual activity, “condom” is not the only c-word. The unmarried friends in your world deserve to know there is a better option out there than what the world is offering them.
Chastity. I like that word. Rolls out of the mouth pretty well, doesn’t it? I’m going to start using it more, because apparently it’s still in a lot of peoples’ dictionaries.